


What do you need?

by dearsam



Series: Secretly Yours [2]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Garcia is looking out for Hotch, Late Night Conversations, mentions of abduction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-31
Updated: 2015-03-31
Packaged: 2018-03-20 15:32:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3655509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearsam/pseuds/dearsam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team helps out with a case of five abducted children. When the children are found dead, Hotch receives a very welcome call late at night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What do you need?

**Author's Note:**

> Ahh, so I actually meant to post Chapter 3 of Stay first, you see, but as it happens that one turned out to be pants so I'll have to rewrite it. In the meantime I felt like treating myself to some nice fluff. (As if my stories are ever anything else??)   
> Anyhow, please enjoy and let me know what you think.

Hotch knew all about the awkwardness that usually came with an office romance. Only that this wasn’t exactly an office romance, was it? It was nothing. Him reading too much into a situation that had included him and a mostly sleeping Penelope. No, Garcia. As he stepped out of the elevator three weeks after That Night, he made sure to head straight for his office. There had been another two cases already, and frankly, he was looking forward to the two days at Quantico that they had been promised. As brilliant as field work was, it helped to sit down and just focus on the paperwork sometimes.   
Garcia had turned into that constant thought, always at the back of his mind, but he managed to focus on the work. For most of the time, anyway. Part of him wanted to regret that he had ever gone over to her place that night, but it had been the right thing to do. Even if there had been nothing between them, it would still have been the right thing to do. He couldn’t just sit by when one of his team members was hurting. He stared down at the report that he was currently trying to finish. It wasn’t that he regretted his actions so much. It was more that he shouldn’t have let things go as far as they had. Emotionally, at least. 

But it was done now, and he pushed the thought away with a slightly annoyed sigh. When he heard a knock, he looked up, startled. “Pe- Garcia. Do you need something?” Setting the pen down, he looked up at her but tried to avoid direct eye contact. She looked particularly lovely today, he couldn’t help but notice as his eyes darted over the turquoise polka dot dress she wore. Hotch had always appreciated the fact that Penelope refused to conform to certain expectations. “No, I don’t need anything,” she said, stepping closer. 

It was only then that he noticed the mug in her hand. “You do. Coffee. You haven’t left your office since you came in at 7.30 am, have you?” He shrugged his shoulders. What could he say? Noticing that she kept her other hand behind her back, Aaron tilted his head to the side and gave her a curious glance. “What else do you have for me?” He thought that she would maybe produce a case file, or some forms she needed him to sign off. But what she pulled out instead made him gasp a little.   
“Just to keep you going, Boss Man.” A sandwich and cookies. He had to close his eyes for a second to keep his composure. It was obviously intentional. She could have brought him anything, or nothing at all – it wasn’t exactly a secret that Hotch rarely had breakfast at the office- but she had brought this of all things. “Garcia...” 

She shook her head at him. “No. Don’t. Just… eat. And drink.” She glanced over her shoulder to make sure that no one else was approaching his office. “Sir,” How weird the title sounded to his ears all of a sudden! “I know I never said anything, but…” He wanted to interrupt her, knowing that this was neither the place nor the time to have a talk that they should have had three weeks ago, if ever, but she continued before he could get a word in. “Thank you. And that sandwich you made me was bloomin’ fantastic.”   
He grasped the straw that she was offering him and smiled at her attempt to lighten the mood between them. “Have you been talking to Emily again? You always pick up words from her.” Penelope closed her eyes and chuckled. “Let me know if the cookies are salty,” she chirped. Hotch shook his head a little. “Your cookies never are, Penelope. You know that.” 

 

Of course things didn’t stay this calm and quiet. Despite the Chief’s promise to keep them home for at least a couple of days, they had another case the next day. And it was another nasty one. Mass abduction, five kids missing. As soon as everyone had left the conference room, Hotch locked himself into his office and grabbed the photo of Jack he kept on his desk. He would have loved to go home, right now, just for a few minutes. Instead he allowed himself to glance at the picture for another minute or so before he grabbed his go bag and headed out to meet the others by the elevator.   
Every case was unique, somehow. Sure, there were similarities, sometimes, but in the end there didn’t seem to be an end to the deprivation of human minds. Endless possibilities. That made it quite hard for them to prepare themselves for whatever they might find at a crime scene. Aaron looked around the local station that they had set up at and watched as Reid worked on his geographical profile. The Sheriff entered the room almost hesitantly, and one look at the man’s face was enough to tell them what had happened. 

“They found the bodies.” Reid frowned, clearly disturbed. “You mean all of them?” Hotch closed his eyes when the sheriff nodded. “Yes. All five of them.” There was nothing that he hated more about his job than having to inform next of kin of a death – but having to tell parents? God. It never got any easier. Never. “Reid, call Garcia. Find out if she located the parents of the 5- year old by now. I’ll go talk to the parents of the others.” 

 

It was 3.48 am when his phone went off. He only knew the exact time because he had been lying awake ever since they had gotten back to the hotel. Hotch didn’t want to have to look at another body of a dead kid, not at this hour. It took him a moment to realise that they would be looking at a missing person’s report first, in all likelihood. “Hotchner.” 

He sat up abruptly when it wasn’t the Sheriff’s voice he had been expecting that answered him. “Hey, Boss Man.” Garcia sounded as exhausted and defeated as he felt himself. “Garcia,” he rasped out, voice gone hoarse from the lack of speech, “Is everything okay? Are you alright?”   
He listened to a long, drawn out sigh. “You said that I should call you if I needed something.” It took him another moment until he realised that she was talking about the note that he had left her three weeks ago. He leaned against the headboard and almost smiled. “That’s right. What do you need, Penelope?” There in the darkness, with no one but her as his witness, it would have been impossible to call her anything else. 

“I need to make sure that you’re alright.” The confession startled Hotch. “Penelope, what are you talking about? It’s the middle of the night.” She let it all out then, one long stream of consciousness: that she had been at the office until just before 2 am, looking through the reports and through new missing person’s reports, how she had seen the pictures of the kids and that she hadn’t missed the fact that one of those kids looked a little too much like Jack. Hotch pressed his phone as close as he could. “Penelope,” he finally interrupter her in a gentle voice. “Thank you.”   
Apparently that was enough to silence her for the moment, so Hotch took advantage of it. “Really. Thank you. I think all of us would be a bit lost without you looking out for us.” He closed his eyes again. “There was no evidence, not a single print… We might have to come back home if nothing new turns up today.”   
He had never realised how helpful it could be to just share the concern. Instead of discussing the case further, Penelope told him about ‘the thing’ she was knitting at the moment. “You knit at four in the morning, Penelope?” She scoffed at him. “Yes, I do, if I have reason to stay up.”   
Hotch manoeuvred himself back into a more comfortable position and pulled the blanket over himself. He didn’t let himself dwell on the fact that it was almost-but-not-quite like having Penelope next to him in bed. Letting out a small yawn, he listened to her go on and on about some new stitch she was teaching herself, and the colours, and… 

 

He woke up a few hours later to the sound of Penelope’s even breathing. His phone was still clutched in his hand, next to his ear. He Hotch groaned softly as he sat up. As nice and comforting as this had been, it definitely came at the cost of a stiff neck. He cleared his throat and tried to control his voice as much as that was possible after just having woken up. “Penelope?” He was met with a soft grumble that made him smile.   
To think that this woman, gorgeous genius that she was, had stayed up with him just because she had been worried! “Penelope, come on. Wake up.” He chuckled once more when the woman’s soft protests turned into a loud groan. “Penelope,” he muttered as soon as he could be sure that he had her attention. “As soon as we get back from this case… I’m going to take you out for dinner.” Her answer was a raspy giggle.


End file.
